Counting the days

Hey everyone. Well we are still waiting for the court date in Ethiopia. When we last spoke with our adoption agency she emphasized that it was very close. For those of you who do not know we have to have a court date in Ethiopia to do all the legalities to make Jameya (Mimi) officially our child. The adoption agency used to let the adoptive parents know when the court date was scheduled for, but in Ethiopia these dates often got postponed and changed. As you can imagine this was quite a roller coaster of emotions if your court date came and went without any finality. So, although our agency knows when the date is, we do not. Although it is tough to wait, I would rather just get one call with the good news that everything was done than constantly be disappointed. Once we know the court date is done we have about 4 weeks and max of 5 weeks until we can finally go to Ethiopia. What needs to be done in this time is Jameya needs to receive an Ethiopian Passport then all the paperwork gets sent to Kenya, which is the closest Canadian Embassy. What they are doing there is giving her all the proper paperwork and visas to come to Canada. During that time they will also need to get another medical report done and verified. All of this takes 4 weeks from the conclusion of the court date. So, when we have the good news from the court date, we can schedule a flight for 4 to 5 weeks after that. Leah and I are planning on spending 10 days to 2 weeks in Ethiopia getting to know not only our child, but the country that she was born in. Hopefully we will get the good news this week and start to plan to fly to Ethiopia the first weeks of June. So please cross your fingers, pray, knock on wood, send good vibes, toast or whatever you can to help the next 4-5 weeks go smoothly. We just want it to all be done so we can bring Jameya home and introduce her to you all (and of course love her to death and Leah SPOIL her to death!)

Something that touched my heart today.....

Legacy of an Adopted Child
Once there were two women
Who never knew each other.
One you do not remember,
The other you call "Mother."

One gave you a nationality,
The other gave you a name.
One gave you the seed of talent,
The other gave you an aim.

Two different lives shaped to make yours one;
One became your guiding star,
The other became your sun.

One gave you emotions,
The other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile,
The other dried your tears.

The first gave you life,
The second taught you to live it.
The first gave you a need for love,
And the second was there to give it.

One gave you up,
It was all she could do.
The other prayed for a child,
And God led her straight to you.

And now you ask me through your tears,
The age old question through the years;
Heredity or environment - which are you a product of?
Neither my darling, neither;
Just two different kinds of love.

-Author unknown

First Picture

Well, it's been about 5 days since we told you we received a few pictures of Jameya and we have finally figured out how to get them on here. At this rate the next pictures will probably be of her sweet sixteen party. We haven't heard anymore about when we will be able to go to Ethiopia, to finally get her, but I don't know how much longer I can keep Leah from going down there. I am almost getting to the point where I wouldn't be surprised if I got home from work one night to a message of "I have gone to see Jameya, I will see you when you get here." Well I guess everyone wasn't lying when they said that the waiting would be the hardest part. We will update everyone as we hear more.

Jason

PICTURES!!!!

YAY - we finally received pictures today....these were taken a week or so ago..so she is about 2 or 3 weeks old. She is sleeping...but we still think that she is a cutie. Our adoption agency was down there and said that she is doing well and very healthy. We are so lucky! We will keep everyone updated when we hear anything. And it was her one month birthday yesterday, April 3rd...so Happy Birthday our little Jameya!